Most of what we think of as Nara is concentrated in the north part of the prefecture, but this project is in Kashihara city, which is in the south, near the well-known timber-growing area of Nara.

Yoshino ‘Hinoki’ (Japanese cypress) is famous, and I decided to make all of the structural materials such as beams, pillars, girders etc. from ‘hinoki’. I used only 120 mm square ‘hinoki’ pieces, in order to avoid waste and to make the ordering and delivery more efficient.

For the pillars, I paired the cypress pieces, sandwiching the transverse members between them, using bolts at each joint. This technique greatly reduced time, labor and material costs. It also made it possible to slide transverse members between the twinned pillars and anchor them wherever desired. I used this to create four different floor heights connected by stairs. The spaces created are defined by height rather than walls.

The owners’ children have great fun moving up and down the stairs into each area as they play.